Evaluation of China’s live streaming e-commerce industry policies based on a three-dimensional analysis framework

As an emerging business modality and Internet format, live streaming e-commerce has developed rapidly since its emergence in 2016, especially since the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic in late 2019, when an increasing number of businesses from other industries attracted participation. However, with the development of the live streaming e-commerce industry, the industry’s market environment is becoming increasingly chaotic. Therefore, during this period, government departments continuously formulate and implement relevant industry policies. In order to exploring the cooperation network structure, policy content distribution, and implementation effectiveness characteristics among publishers, this paper constructs a three-dimensional analysis framework of policy from the perspective of policy tools, policy effectiveness evaluation and policy publishers. The results show that in terms of policy tools, the overall structure of policy tools in the live streaming e-commerce industry is unreasonable, and different types of policy tools are significantly diverse. The proportion of environmental policy tools is greater than that of demand-based and supply-based policy tools, accounting for 62.97%, and among them, the tools related to industry regulation and management account for the largest proportion of the total, which greatly suppresses the enthusiasm of various entities in the industry for development. In terms of policy effectiveness evaluation, most of the policies do not formulate detailed long-, medium-, or short-term goals, nor are the policy priorities, incentive measures, or action modes perfect, indicating that the government’s pushing and pulling forces for the live streaming e-commerce industry are insufficient. Finally, in the subject dimension of policy release, the synergy of relevant subjects is constantly improving, but there is also a phenomenon of over-concentration in the synergistic departments.


Introduction
Currently, with the development of the Internet and the popularization of mobile devices, streaming media commerce such as Taobao live streaming, Sina Weibo live streaming, and

Literature review
Ever since the initial rise of live streaming e-commerce in 2016, it has been particularly eyecatching in accelerating the resumption of work and production, poverty reduction, and employment, creating marketing miracles under the promotion of many people.In the context of the current new business format of the Internet economy, to determine new economic growth points, the government should pay attention to the problems and risks existing in the online live streaming e-commerce industry.Therefore, since 2016, the government has issued a series of industry-related policies striving to explore a standardized and normalized development path for the live streaming e-commerce industry.This section discusses the related literature in two main aspects: the factors affecting the development of the live streaming ecommerce industry and the quantitative analysis of the policy texts.
(1) Factors that impact the development of the live streaming e-commerce industry With the upgrading of Internet technology and the popularization of mobile devices, live streaming e-commerce has developed rapidly.Several typical streams of literature are as follows: Xu et al. [3] proposed that the development of traditional e-commerce was evolving.As an upgrade of traditional e-commerce, live streaming e-commerce has great potential for using various types of emerging novel applications to enhance customer participation and achieve greater economic value.Busalim and Hussin [4] proposed that this innovative livestreaming marketing approach would transform traditional e-commerce from a product oriented shopping environment to a social, hedonic and customer-centered environment, enriching traditional business in various ways.Therefore, as a booming emerging field, many scholars have studied the live streaming e-commerce industry.Yu et al. [5] explored the relevant factors that affected the purchase intentions or participation in live streaming e-commerce.This study empirically proved that the motive for socialization strongerly correlated with gift-giving behavior, which was considered the commoditization of a viewer's social interaction while consuming media.Through a questionnaire survey of live viewers, Xu et al. [6] used the purchase intention model constructed by empirical testing, identified how social capital affected purchase intention in live streaming e-commerce, found that the streamer's professionalism, the reciprocal expectation of live streaming, and the viewer's parasocial relationship could effectively increase the viewer's purchase intention.Zhang et al. [7] used stimulus-organism-response (SOR) model, constructing a research framework for the influence of knowledge sharing on consumer-brand relationship in virtual communities, finding that knowledge-sharing quality has significant positive effects on the sense of virtual community, as does the sense of virtual community on the consumer-brand relationships.Cai et al. [8] examined live streaming e-commerce, conceptualizing it as a type of online shopping that incorporated realtime social interaction, and examined the relationships between hedonic and utilitarian motivations and shopping intention; the authors found that hedonic motivation was positively related to celebrity-based intention and that utilitarian motivation was positively related to product-based intention.However, Apiradee and Nuttapol [9] suggested that research pertaining to the live streaming context was still at a nascent stage, and most related research has been conducted in the form of a survey to describe the characteristics of live streaming and consumer motivations to participate in it.Qing and Jin [10] also showed that although people were increasingly interested in live streaming e-commerce, related research was still limited, and most related research on live streaming e-commerce was based on consumer decisionmaking models.Few scholars currently focus on the analysis of policies in the live streaming ecommerce industry.In fact, in the development of the live streaming e-commerce industry, national government departments are constantly issuing relevant policies to promote the healthy and normal development of the industry.Therefore, quantitative research on these policy texts can be used to analyze the current policies related to the live streaming e-commerce industry effectively and put forward corresponding optimized suggestions to provide a scientific basis for the following policy formulation.
(2) Quantitative analysis of policy texts Quantitative analysis of policy texts is the most pivotal link in formulating and managing public policies, and it is also the basis for rationally allocating policy resources.Generally, by using different quantitative models and technical means to conduct a comprehensive analysis of specific policies, one can not only make scientific judgments on the policies but also test the actual effects of policy formulation and implementation.At present, scholarly research on quantitative policy texts has focused on policy content analysis, policy system improvement, and policy effect evaluation.For example, Zeng and Yang [11] used Nvivo12 qualitative software to conduct grounded research and qualitative text analysis on 20 Chinese cultural and creative industry development policy texts, and summarized three core elements that promoted the development of China's cultural and creative industry: "development task", "development goal" and "development guarantee".Guo and Niu [12] started by classifying policies and the synergistic effect of policy types and policy tools and constructing a collaborative analysis model of policy function to study collaborative research between science and technology policy types and policy tools.Finally, it was suggested that the formulation of science and technology policy should closely address the background of the times and the characteristics of the policy types, and the corresponding policy tools should be synthetically selected to match its applicability.Cheng et al. [13] used combined interviews and investigator field observations to analyze and evaluate the implementation effect of the "Link Policy" from the perspectives of participants and investigators.The results showed that the participants recognized and supported improving rural living conditions and coordinating urban-rural development, but the Link Policy failed to achieve the objectives of preserving farmland, protecting farmers' land use rights and interests, and facilitating agricultural production.At the same time, several scholars have analyzed the government policies through the two-dimensional analysis framework of "policy goals-policy tools", the three-dimensional analysis framework of "policy subjects-policy objects-policy goals", and the four-dimensional research framework of "policy subjects-policy objects-policy objectives-policy tools" and provided relevant suggestions.Based on content analysis, Wang et al. [14] evaluated and analyzed the effect of the new energy vehicle policy from two dimensions: the policy instrument types and the semantic structure characteristics of the policy texts.The results showed that the most frequently used policy instrument was regulatory, and the main policy objective was the demand-pull.Zhang et al. [15] constructed an analytical framework from the dimensions of policy instruments, policy targets, and policy strength to conduct a quantitative analysis of 30 talent policy texts issued by the Sichuan Provincial Government.The results showed that policy targets focused on talent innovation and talent efficiency but paid less attention to talent flow, and policy strength was in line with strategic adjustments; however, these policies were not sufficiently sustainable.Wang [16] explored the sustainable evolution law of China's cloud manufacturing policies from the perspectives of policy issuing departments, policy focus topics and policy tools.The results showed that the evolution of cloud manufacturing policies exhibited obvious stage characteristics; it involved three main stages, namely, "encouraging development-top level design-implementation guidance"; China's cloud manufacturing industry was still in the development stage; and it was urgent to introduce policies that directly affect the industry.
In general, most of the relevant research is based on the quantitative analysis of policy texts from the perspective of policy tools, but little consideration has been given to evaluating policy effectiveness.Although some scholars have expanded the analysis perspective and added other dimensions, the main body still revolves around policy tools.At the same time, the research on relevant policies in the live streaming e-commerce industry is still in its infancy, and there is no systematic quantitative analysis of the text.Based on this, to broaden the research ideas of quantitative analysis of relevant policies in the live streaming e-commerce industry and analyze the rationality of current industry policies, this paper constructs a three-dimensional analysis framework of relevant policies in the live streaming e-commerce industry from three dimensions: policy tools, policy effectiveness evaluation, and policy publishers.First, according to the content of the live streaming e-commerce policy, policy tools suitable for this industry are classified.Second, by integrating the multi-dimensional perspective of policy text quantification in other fields and combined with the text mining results of live streaming e-commerce industry policy, the variables at all levels in the PMC index model are determined; thus, the pros, cons, and internal consistency of a certain policy can be analyzed from various dimensions.Obtaining the original index data for policy evaluation through text mining largely avoids subjective evaluation and improves the precision of the analysis results.Finally, social network analysis is adopted to quantitatively analyze the characteristics of the policy release subject and its cooperation network, which is conducive to clarifying the centrality of the policy publishers and the degree of coordination among the subjects and improving the policy system of the live streaming e-commerce industry.

Research design
Although the existing policy evaluation studies inspire this paper, most of these studies examine the use of tools from the perspective of policy tools without considering the policy path, meaning that they ignore the methods used to solve specific problems.For example, in some studies from the perspective of policy tools, the statistical analysis of supply-based tools, demand-based tools, and environment-based tools can reflect the basic situation of policies to a certain extent, but the statistical analysis of policy tools fails to fully consider the particularity of specific policies and cannot truly reflect the objective situation.Therefore, this paper conducts a comprehensive analysis of live streaming e-commerce policies and objectively evaluates them.The idea is shown in Fig 1.
As shown in Fig 1, this paper constructs a three-dimensional analysis of relevant policies in the live streaming e-commerce industry from three mutually supportive and complementary dimensions: policy tools, policy effectiveness evaluation and policy publishers.In terms of policy tools, this paper divides policies into three categories: supply-based, demand-based, and environment-based.Then, according to the content of the policy text, the policy tool categories are subdivided, and a definition table of policy tool types suitable for the live streaming e-commerce industry is established.This table fully considers the particularity of the policy of the live streaming e-commerce industry and can be used to effectively analyze the methods used to solve specific problems.In terms of policy effectiveness evaluation, this paper fully draws on the analytic frameworks of other researchers and takes policy goals, policy objects, and policy paths into account.Through the data mining of policy texts, this paper studies secondary variables from these perspectives to construct PMC policy evaluation indicators, which can be used to better analyze the pros, cons, and internal consistency of policy content in the live streaming e-commerce industry from a global perspective.In addition, this paper quantitatively analyzes policy publishers and the characteristics of their cooperation network to effectively analyze the centrality of the policy publishers and the degree of synergy among them, build a crossdepartmental policy for the live streaming e-commerce industry, and provide effective suggestions for formulating policies.The specific research framework is shown in Fig 2. As shown in Fig 2, this paper takes 2016, when the live streaming e-commerce industry began to rise, as the starting point for collecting and counting its related industry policies.In the three-dimensional analysis framework, policy tools are divided into three types: supplybased, demand-based, and environment-based.Sub-categories of policy tools used under these criteria are established to distinguish the specific areas of relevant policy roles.This division is more multi-dimensional and comprehensive, and the operation method is relatively specific, which is more suitable for the relevant policies of the live streaming e-commerce industry in this paper.In the dimension of policy effectiveness evaluation, ROST CM software is used to mine the policy text, select variables through high-frequency word statistics and a keyword semantic network, build the PMC index model of industry-related policies, and construct the PMC surface diagram to intuitively display the pros and cons of the policy.With respect to the dimensions of the policy publishers, this paper uses Ucinet software to conduct a social network analysis of policy publishers in the live streaming e-commerce industry, to study the characteristics of the cooperation network and clarify the centrality and degree of synergy between them.

Data collection and acquisition
In 2016, the live streaming e-commerce industry grew rapidly due to the epidemic outbreak and Internet development.To ensure the healthy development of this new consumption modality, the government issued many policies.Therefore, this paper started from 2016 to the present, using "live streaming", "live streaming e-commerce", "online transaction" and other terms related to the live streaming e-commerce industry as keywords to search for PKULAW.CN.SCHOOL, the Chinese government website, and the official websites of various ministries and commissions.Due to the mixed quality of relevant policies, to ensure the comprehensive, scientific, and representative selection of policies, this paper organizes and screens the policy texts according to the following principles: First, the policy texts at the national level are selected, and the publisher is the central legislature or the State Council and its ministries and commissions, while local policies are not adopted.Second, the policy content is directly related to the live streaming e-commerce industry.Third, the policy types include laws and regulations, official administrative documents, industry standards, and other documents.Fourth, the policies are currently valid.A total of 59 relevant policy texts related to the live streaming ecommerce industry are ultimately collected, as shown in Table 1.Moreover, for convenience, this paper abbreviates the names of the various departments according to the domain names of the official websites of the various departments of the country.The results are shown in Table 2.
Table 3 shows the monthly change trends and types of policy texts released.The time is subject to the official implementation date of the policy.The type of policy text is determined by the classification of policy documents on the official website of the Central People's Government of the Communist Party of China, and the policies not clearly divided are set as "other".Table 3 shows that, in terms of the number of released policies, the number in 2020 was the largest, followed by that in 2016, which was closely related to the actual environment at that time.In 2016, the development of smart phones + 4G led to an explosion of various live streaming platforms, and live streaming e-commerce was the first to attract the attention of the public.This new consumption approach allowed the government and all walks of life to see new economic drivers.Therefore, the government issued many policy measures in that year to create an environment for its development.In 2020, impacted by the epidemic, the development of the live streaming e-commerce industry was objectively further promoted, which gave birth to various forms of industry chaos, and its marketing environment deteriorated rapidly.To regulate industry chaos, the government has issued a great number of normative policies to safeguard the rights and interests of consumers.In terms of policy types, among the 59 industry-related policies, the proportion of notification policy texts is the largest, accounting for 57.63%, indicating that during the development of the industry, the government tends to adopt policies with indicative nature and mandatory arrangement functions.In contrast, the number of other types of policies, such as "announcements" and "opinions", is relatively small, accounting for 42.37%, which aims to supplement the norms of the live streaming e-commerce industry.

Definition of policy tools.
According to the research results of domestic and foreign scholars, as well as the basic definition, type and classification, policy tools can be divided into different categories and use types.At present, the classification method of policy tools proposed by Rothwell and Zegveld [17] is recognized; i.e., the basic policy tools are divided into three types: supply-based, environment-based, and demand-based.This paper draws on the above-mentioned policy tool classification method to study the policies of China's live streaming e-commerce development and takes this as a dimension in the analysis process.Supplybased policy tools are mainly reflected in the driving force of policy development in the live streaming e-commerce industry; these tools include the direct supply of talent, funds, technology, and other elements to ensure resource demand for development.Demand-based policy tools mainly focus on the market, which is reflected in the pulling force of policies on the live streaming e-commerce industry, including government purchases, public services, demonstration promotion, and trade control.Environment-based policy tools, as external factors, indirectly impact the live streaming e-commerce industry, through financial support, tax incentives, standards, and regulations.The above three types of policy tools can be further subdivided according to the content of industry-related policy texts, and their specific classifications and interpretations are shown in Table 4.

Encoding of policy tools.
This paper uses Nvivo 12 qualitative analysis software to encode, classify and quantify the content of policy tools in the policy text.First, policy clauses or chapters are taken as the smallest analysis unit, and the authors subsequently encode them according to the "policy number-point number".The encoding example is shown in Table 5, and the corresponding reference points are set in Nvivo.Second, the attributes are summarized based on the clause content, and the specific tool name is clarified.Finally, the distribution of nodes is counted to convert the text content into data for quantitative analysis.Moreover, due to the comprehensive content of some policy texts, to ensure accurate classification while performing frequency statistics, it is necessary to repeat the counting according to the type of policy tool.For example, if an analysis unit involves regulatory control and business coordination simultaneously, each of the two policy sub-tools is counted once.

Analysis of policy tools.
After the policy tool is encoded and the composite policy tool is added, a total of 2266 policy tools remain and the results are shown in Table 6.
Overall, the relevant policies of China's live streaming e-commerce industry use policy tools more comprehensively and take supply-based, environment-based, and demand-based policy tools into account, but the differences among different types of policy tools are significant.Among them, environment-based policy tools are used the most frequently, with 1,265 items, accounting for 62.97%.This finding indicates the government prefers to regulate the macro environment through indirect means to ensure the orderly development of the live streaming e-commerce industry.Demand-based policy tools are used in second place in terms of frequency, accounting for 20.26%.Supply-based policy tools are used in the least order, accounting for 16.77%.Compared with those of environment-based policies, there are fewer other two types of policies, which concentrate on the early stage of the development of the live streaming e-commerce industry, i.e., 2016-2018.The proportions of sub-categories of tools used for the three types of policies also significantly differ.Among them, within the supplybased policy tools, innovation drive and infrastructure construction play important roles in the policy content of these tools, accounting for 37.09% and 32.94%, respectively.The frequency of talent training and element input is significantly lower, especially talent training, which is only 8.01%.This shows that the government has invested far less in capital, materials, and talent in the live streaming e-commerce industry.Among the demand-based policy tools, social participation and feedback complaint tools account for a relatively high proportion of the total, but other policy tools covering content such as poverty alleviation and employment, government purchases, publicity and promotion are significantly lacking, indicating that the government's driving force for live streaming e-commerce is not enough.In addition, within environment-based policy tools, standards and norms (27.73%) as well as regulations and controls (26.56%) are the government's most commonly used regulatory means.However, the use of other policy tools, such as target planning, policy support, and market environmental control, is still insufficient, within 10%.It can be seen that government departments have focused their attention on rectifying the behavior of the industry, while policies related to its development, such as target norms and encouragement and support, have not been given great attention, as they have curbed the enthusiasm of the economic market to a certain extent.
In summary, although the current live streaming e-commerce industry has developed quickly, its policy has a structural imbalance of overflowing environment-based policy tools Guide all social forces to participate in activities related to the development of live streaming e-commerce, such as encouraging social supervision, public-private cooperation, social openness, etc The market supervision and management department guides online transaction operators, online transaction industry organizations, consumer organizations, and consumers to participate in the governance of the online transaction market, and promotes the improvement of diversified participation and effective coordination. . .

Pilot demonstration28
Conduct pilot projects and establishes demonstration models to drive the healthy development of the industry When compiling the work plan for the creation of an ecommerce demonstration city, it is necessary to fully investigate and listen to the opinions of all walks of life; it is necessary to avoid the practice of not paying attention to regulation and policy construction, and only paying attention to the construction of facilities, parks, and engineering projects. . .Notice of NDRC and other seven departments on promoting the development of e-commerce (Continued ) and weakening demand-based and supply-based policy tools.This weakens the government's role in promoting market demand, which is not conducive to the advantages of the live streaming e-commerce industry in driving economic recovery affected by the epidemic.Therefore, with the further development of the live streaming e-commerce industry, policy system optimization should focus on targeted and scientific policy tools.The government should avoid the single use of policy tools and appropriately reduce the use of environmentbased policy tools, coordinate supply-based policy tools, and expand demand-based policy tools, thus strengthening the advantages of the live streaming e-commerce industry in poverty alleviation, flexible employment, cross-border e-commerce, and economic transformation.On the other hand, the government should enhance the proportional coordination of sub-category tools within each policy tool.In particular, first, in addition to strengthening the four elements of infrastructure, technology, talent, and capital, timely insights into the new needs of information security subjects should be gained, and consider various supportive measures such as public services and tax incentives should be considered.Second, it is necessary to intensify publicity, promote cooperation between the government and external enterprises, value The national network information department is responsible for the overall coordination of the national network information content ecological governance and related supervision and management, and the relevant competent departments do a good job in the network information content ecological governance according to their respective responsibilities Strengthen overall planning and coordination.In accordance with the principle of "who is in charge, who is responsible", we will build a multi field, cross departmental collaborative work pattern to form a strong overall planning, smooth coordination, each performing its own duties, and each bearing its own responsibilities Regulations on Ecological Governance of Network Information Content https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0301451.t004resource sharing and network attack and defense simultaneously, and promote the benign development of the market.Finally, strategies are needed to enhance compulsory industry norms, upgrade industry normative entries into mandatory laws and regulations, protect the interests of all parties, and enable healthy development in the live streaming e-commerce industry.

Policy effectiveness evaluation
Policy effectiveness evaluation estimates and evaluates the content, implementation, goal achievement, and other effects of a policy.The policy is measured and analyzed based on a series of specific evaluation criteria and research methods to evaluate the effect, impact, and value of policy implementation.Policy effectiveness evaluation directly contributes to policy formulation, implementation, and feedback adjustment.At present, there is a certain degree of Clause 1 These Provisions are formulated in order to strengthen the management of Internet user account information.Promote the core socialist values, and safeguard national security.

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Clause 2 Internet users registering and using Internet users at Internet information service providers within the territory of the People's Republic Of China. . .These Provisions shall apply.

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Clause 3 The national network information department shall be responsible for the supervision and management of the national Internet user account information.Local network information departments shall supervise and manage the work according to their responsibilities.

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0301451.t005subjective tendency and ambiguity in the research on policy effectiveness evaluation, and the PMC index model is a quantitative policy evaluation analysis method.The innovation of this index model is the use of binary digits 0 and 1 to balance each variable, and it emphasizes that the number and weight of variables should not be limited.Based on this, the PMC index model can analyze the internal heterogeneity and pros and cons of a policy from a multidimensional perspective, and visually display the advantages and disadvantages of each dimension of the policy through the PMC surface diagram.At present, the PMC index model is widely used in the quantitative analysis of policy texts in many fields.The typical applications of these methods are as follows: Zhang and Yang [18] used the PMC to construct a policy text evaluation model, and propose three optimization strategies for the education policy of border ethnic minorities.Liu and Li [19] applied the PMC to evaluate the effectiveness of the 20 policies for promoting the employment of college students from 2015 to 2020.The results showed that 19 of the 20 policies were acceptable or excellent, accounting for 95% of the total publications, indicating that most of the current policies could effectively promote the employment of college students.However, representative policies could be optimized and upgraded according to two different ideas: "policy tendency-policy field-target-policy focus" and "policy tendencypolicy field-policy effectiveness-policy focus-target-policy nature".Therefore, to comprehensively evaluate the effectiveness of the current policies related to the live streaming e-commerce industry, based on the relevant literature, this paper further extracts evaluation indicators suitable for the policies of the live streaming e-commerce industry by mining the policy texts and constructing the PMC index model.According to the PMC index scores, the pros and cons of the relevant policies of the live streaming e-commerce industry are identified, and suggestions for policy optimization are put forward to enhance the resilience of the policy system of the live streaming e-commerce industry.

Construction of the policy PMC index model.
Variable classification and parameter identification are the most critical steps before evaluating policy effectiveness.The firstlevel variables include a total of 9 first-level indicators reflecting the nature of the policy and the timeliness of the policy based on the studies of scholars such as Estrada [20], Cai et al. [21], and Wang et al. [22].Second, to enhance the adequacy of variable parameters, in addition to referring to the above-mentioned scholars, this paper mines relevant policy texts in the live streaming industry through data mining to optimize the variables and parameters in the PMC index model.The specific process is as follows: First, the ROST CM software is used to import the collected policy texts into the system for word frequency statistics, and data cleaning is performed on high-frequency words, i.e., to delete words such as "strengthen", "unit", "province", "strengthen", "speed up" and other level words; modifiers; and irrelevant words; furthermore to merge keywords with similar semantics and consistent descriptions, such as "fine" into "punishment", "competent department", "regulatory department", "State Council", etc., into "relevant departments", "information services", "network services", "public services", etc., into "relevant departments", "service system", etc., and then to select the first 150 words to form the final high-frequency vocabulary.The results are shown in Table 7. Finally, the topic word semantic network map is constructed through the high-frequency vocabulary, as shown in Fig 3 .The operations reveal the specific characteristics of the policy content, paving the way for variable classification and parameter setting.
As shown in Table 7 and Fig 3, industry regulations, public services, business entities, relevant departments, and other nodes occupy central areas, connect with other keywords mostly, and represent the core topic words of policy texts, indicating that live streaming e-commerce policies surround these aspects.According to the distribution of high-frequency words, the content of the policy text is as follows: (1) the government intensifies the supervision of various platforms, merchants, and live streaming hosts by continuously improving the industry supervision system and strengthening law enforcement; (2) relevant industry norms are gradually improved, and market orders are improved; (3) keywords such as digitization, innovation, transformation and upgrading, and new business formats reflect that the formulation of the current live streaming e-commerce policies also pays attention to technological innovation and development and application of the Internet; and (4) topics such as sharing and resource collaboration reflect that while developing live streaming e-commerce, the management of data sharing and resource optimization are attached to great importance.Therefore, in this paper, combined with the settings of variable parameters in the previous relevant literature, 9 first-level variables are adjusted and established, and several second-level variables are set.The results are shown in Table 8.

Construction of a multi-input-output table.
The multi-input-output table of the PMC index model is a data analytic framework formed by measuring variables from multiple dimensions, consisting of first-level and second-level variables.In the PMC index model, the weights of all the second-level variables are equal, and the parameter values are binary.If a policy text contains the content of the corresponding second-level variable, the parameter value of the second-level variable is marked as 1; otherwise, it is 0. The analysis results in section 5.1.3indicate that most policy tools are related to industry norms and supervision.To make a better assessment, this paper selects 5 comprehensive and representative policies.As the research object, a policy effectiveness analysis is carried out.The specific content is shown in Table 9, and the multi-input-output table obtained is shown in Table 10.

Calculation of the PMC index.
The calculation of the PMC index refers to the calculation method of Estrada [23].The specific steps are as follows: 1. Establish first-level and second-level variables according to the relevant policy content of live streaming.
2. Construct a multi-input-output table and assign specific values to the second-level variables through text mining and formulas (1) and (2).
3. According to formula (3) and the assignment of the second-level variables, calculate the values of the first-level variables.
Where t is a first-level variable and j is a second-level variable.4. The PMC index of the policy to be evaluated is calculated by summing up formula (4).
The PMC indices of various policies related to live streaming e-commerce are obtained.Finally, according to the PMC index value, the consistency of various policies related to live streaming e-commerce is evaluated.There are 9 first-level indicators in total, so the total score of the indicators for each policy is 9.Moreover, according to the perspective of Ruize [24], the scores are rated according to the policy scoring shown in Table 11.

5.2.4
Results and analysis of the PMC index model.The policy evaluation results obtained according to the PMC index model are shown in Table 12.The sag index is 9-PMC, which is used to indicate the degree of difference between the policy to be evaluated and the "perfect policy".
As shown in Table 12, among the five selected live streaming e-commerce policies, the results of two policy evaluations are excellent, one is good, one is medium, and one is bad.The evaluation results of the policies are within an acceptable range.These live streaming e-commerce policies are scientific and feasible to a certain extent, and the synergy of relevant policies is high and can combine the needs of industry and social development.However, some policies also have certain defects and need to be further improved.The average score of each variable shows that, first, policy timeliness has the lowest score, indicating that the relevant policies are not clear enough in long-, medium-, or short-term planning, and that the development goals are relatively simple.Second, policy support and action methods have low scores.Combined with the analysis results of the policy tool dimension in Section 5.1, most of the policies currently released are similar to the selected policies P4 and P5; that is, they are related to industry norms, which shows that the government attaches great importance to industry regulation rather than to promotion.The policy method will inevitably be too limited, the scope of action will be narrow, and the enthusiasm of each subject engaging in live streaming e-commerce will be reduced.
To more clearly observe the results of the quantitative evaluation of various policies in the PMC index model, this paper introduces 9 first-level variables into formula (5) to construct a 3×3 surface matrix, draws a surface map of each policy, and examines the internal consistency level and the effectiveness of the policy structure.

PMC surface
The results are shown in Fig 4, where the x and y coordinate systems correspond to the positions of the first-level variables X1-X9, the z-axis corresponds to the score of each firstlevel variable, and the three-dimensional graphs of P1, P2, P3, P4, and P5 correspond to the positions of a, b, c, d, and e, respectively.
Fig 4 shows that P2 and P3, which are at the excellent level according to the three-dimensional map of the PMC index of the five policies in Fig 4, are comprehensive policies related to promoting the development of the live streaming e-commerce industry.These policies take general requirements and specific measures into account, involving politics, economics, innovation, services, and other policy areas.They attract a wide audience, including government departments at all levels, businesses, non-profit organizations, citizens, etc., and the consideration of the content of each evaluation index is also relatively balanced.However, there are obvious defects in the timeliness of these policies; for example, the combination of long-term, medium-term and short-term goals is ignored, and the specific timing of medium-and long- term development plans is not given, which is also a common problem of the five selected policies.P1 is also a comprehensive policy on the development of the industry and is released in the initial stage of the live streaming e-commerce industry.Therefore, the understanding of the development trend of the industry is insufficient, resulting in additional gaps in the three aspects of policy audience, policy support, and policy priority.P4 and P5 are policies related to industry norms.behavior in the industry; thus, except for the policy receptors, the other indicators are very low, indicating that the content of their policies is too limited.However, over-emphasis on regulatory norms for tends to inhibit industry development.Therefore, relevant normative policies should also include corresponding incentives while regulating the industry, and appropriate support should be given to those law-abiding businesses and enterprises in terms of capital, taxation, and technology.In summary, the relevant policies of China's live streaming e-commerce industry generally have the following problems: single policy effectiveness; undetailed formulation of long, medium, and short-term goals and a disunited relationship between goals and policy tools.The settings of policy priorities, incentives, and modes of action are not perfect enough.The text content of the policy shows that the policies with lower PMC scores are normative policies, which account for the majority of the policies issued by the government.The current policy content is simple, which results in low policy timeliness, function, and action method scores.Therefore, while ensuring industry norms, the government should also improve the policy paths represented by these variables as follows: First, based on national conditions and the specific live streaming ecommerce situation, the government should formulate small goals with strong operability in stages under the guidance of the overall goal, take the macro-and micro-levels of the policy into account, and improve the operability and effect of the live streaming e-commerce policies.Second, the government needs to enrich its incentive measures in policy content and fully consider the means of government financial subsidies, technical support, tax incentives, and talent incentives to accelerate the development of the live streaming e-commerce industry.Third, to intensify policy publicity, the government can first pilot policy implementation demonstrations in regions and industries where the live streaming e-commerce industry is more mature; then it can gradually expand its application fields, such as medical care, education, tourism, and other fields; and attach importance to accelerating economic transformation and upgrading throughout all walks of life.Fourth, based on standardization and supervision, the government can appropriately strengthen services and incentives such as data sharing and public-private cooperation to prevent excessive inhibition of live streaming e-commerce development.

Policy publishers
The main body of policy publishers refers to the institution or organization that releases relevant policy documents in accordance with legal authority and procedures, which is the core part of the policy system.Schneider and Ingramtt [25] proposed that the formulation and implementation of policies were mainly jointly realized by the macro-control behavior of policy publishers, the selection and application of policy tools and the selection of policy objects.The publisher has significant power in participating in or influencing policy formulation, implementation, supervision, and evaluation.Accordingly, this paper draws on the research methods of policy analysis of Liu et al. [26], and uses Ucinet software [27] to quantitatively analyze the relevant policy publishers and their cooperation network characteristics in the live streaming e-commerce industry through social network analysis and characterization of undirected binary networks to clarify the centrality of the policy publishers and the degree of coordination among the subjects.

Social network analysis.
Social network analysis quantitatively combines graph theory and mathematical models to study social actors and their relationships with each other.It investigates the social structure of relationships within a network and the impact of this structure on individual actors or groups.This method has been implemented in a variety of ways in different fields, including business, communication, information science, economics, physics, and biology.
A social network is a collection of social actors as nodes and their relationships with different properties and measures; these can be described as structural, rational, or functional properties.The structural properties depend on the relationships among nodes.It includes the density and size of social networks.Rational properties are connections among nodes and can be described by strength, reciprocity, and multiplicity.Functional properties are transactional meanings, such as how two participants deal with each other.Based on these attributes and metrics, this paper conducts a quantitative analysis of the policy publishers and their relationships with each other.First, the joint release of relevant policies in the live streaming e-commerce industry across multi-department is regarded as cooperation among the subjects, and the cooperation matrix of the policy publishers is determined.Second, the cooperation network diagram is drawn with the help of Ucinet software.Finally, the cooperation matrix is transformed into an undirected binary matrix through the software to calculate the overall network characteristics and node structure characteristics among the subjects.The social network measurement indicators and interpretations are shown in Table 13.

Model results.
A total of 37 policy publishers related to the live streaming e-commerce industry and the release policy situation are shown in Fig 5 .The CAC and SAMR publish the largest number of policies, with 19 and 18 issued, respectively, and their joint policy releases also accounted for more than 50% of the total issued.Following MPS and MIIT, the total  By Ucinet software, According to the output results, the network density in the social network model of publishers is 0.281, the standard deviation of the density is 0.449, the average distance is 1.579, and the cohesion index is 0.466.The data show that the overall structure of the social network of current policy publishers is not close enough, and their relationships are loose.However, the value of the standard deviation is greater than the network density.The cooperation density among some subjects in the network is greater than the overall network density, and there is a local "aggregation" phenomenon.To further analyze their connections, it is necessary to combine the characteristics of the node structure in the social network model.The results are shown in Table 14.
As shown in Fig 6 and Table 14, the structural characteristics of publishers such as CAC, MPS, PBC, and MIIT, are generally rated high.In terms of degree, CAC is rated the highest, followed by MPS, PBC, MIIT, MOFCOM, and SAMR, which are also rated above 0.5, indicating that these departments are the major forces in formulating and implementing relevant policies for the live streaming e-commerce industry.In terms of Betweenness, CAC is rated the highest, followed by the MIIT, the NDRC, the MPS, and the PBC, indicating that these departments can better coordinate with other departments in releasing and implementing policies, and communicate with various departments.In terms of closeness, CAC, MPS, PBC, MIIT, MOFCOM, and SAMR all have good performance, indicating that they cooperate with other departments quickly.In terms of eigenvector, CAC, MPS, PBC, MIIT, and SAMR are rated higher than other departments are, indicating that these departments are highly correlated with other core nodes and represent core nodes in the network.In summary, the entire social network model follows a multi-subject coordination pattern dominated by CACs, with MPS, PBC, MIIT, MOFCOM, SAMR and NDRC serving as local cores.Finally, this paper further analyzes the network role characteristics of policy publishers from the perspectives of cooperation coverage and intensity.According to the research of Liu [27], cooperation coverage is defined as the number of departments cooperating with policy publishers, i.e., the number of nodes in the cooperation network.Furthermore, cooperation intensity is defined as the ratio of the number of policies jointly released by a policy publisher to the number of cooperative departments.If the ratio cannot be achieved, it is recorded as 0.Then, taking the cooperation coverage as the horizontal axis, the cooperation intensity as the vertical axis, and the median in the data set as the origin coordinate, the cooperation matrix of policy publishers is constructed.The results are shown in Fig 7.As shown in Fig 7, there are 7 policy publishers with wide cooperation coverage and high intensity; these publishers belong to the wide coverage-high intensity entities, namely, CAC, SAMR, MPS, MIIT, MCT, MOFCOM and NDRC, indicating that they have carried out allround, multi-level and wide-field in-depth cooperation with other policy publishers and are in a key position in the cooperation network.Moreover, CSRC, MOF, and WENMING have high cooperation intensities with other policy publishers, but the coverage is limited.SCIO, NMPA, FORESTRY, etc., cooperate with other entities.Their coverage is good, but the cooperation intensity is below average.Other policy publishers, such as NPC, GOV, and AMCSC, are poor in terms of cooperation intensity and coverage.This demonstrates that the current cooperation space among relevant policy publishers in the live streaming e-commerce industry urgently needs further development, and the relevant policy cooperation mechanism still needs to be improved.
In summary, the degree of synergy among the policy publishers in the live streaming ecommerce industry is strengthened, and the synergy density among the publishers is relatively high.However, synergistic departments are over-concentrated, and the policy functions and cooperation of other departments are too concentrated.The policy functions and cooperation ability of these countries have not been fully exerted.Therefore, government departments need to fully consider the complexity of the live streaming e-commerce industry and the diversity of public needs.As a new type of consumption model, the live streaming e-commerce industry plays a pivotal role in promoting the transformation and upgrading of the economy across all walks of life, accelerating the development of new business formats in the internet economy, and supporting the reform of cross-border e-commerce and poverty alleviation.Furthermore, due to the loose threshold, a large number of unemployed laborers joined during the epidemic, and countless unemployed people, trapped in the workplace, and blocked from entrepreneurship seized this opportunity to find a new way out of the predicament of failure.The live streaming e-commerce industry covers a wide range of fields, has many participants, and is deep, which also leads to complex industry structures and policy formulation difficulties.Accordingly, relevant policy formulation and implementation departments should enhance their co-governance capabilities, and establish the concept of policy coordination by building a cross-departmental policy formulation and release platform, thereby promoting communication and cooperation among departments, optimizing coordination mechanisms among departments, and improving the feasibility of policy implementation.

Conclusions
This paper collects a total of 59 policies related to the live streaming e-commerce industry released by various government departments at the national level from 2016 (when the live streaming e-commerce industry first appeared) to 2022.Quantitative analysis is carried out from the perspectives of policy tools, policy effect evaluation, and policy publishers to discuss the existing problems in current policies.This paper aims to provide guidance and suggestions for the Chinese government to further improve the rationality and effectiveness of the relevant policy system of the live streaming e-commerce industry, actively promote the healthy development of the live streaming e-commerce industry, and accelerate the adaptation of all walks of life to the new business format of the internet economy.The following conclusions are drawn from analysis.
1. From the perspective of policy tools, the overall structure of policy tools in the live streaming e-commerce industry is unreasonable, and different types of policy tools are significantly diverse.Among them, environment-based policy tools account for the highest proportion, reaching 62.97%, and instruments related to industrial norms and regulations account for the largest proportion of the country's structure.This indicates that China has focuses mainly on various types of chaos in the industry.To protect the rights and interests of consumers, the industry's normative and regulatory system should be continuously improved.However, it should be noted that the overflow of environmental policy tools and the weakening of supply-based and demand-based policy tools reflect that the government responds slowly to market demand.Enterprises, citizens, related organizations, and other diversified subjects fail to truly participate in the construction of the live streaming e-commerce industry, which weakens the government's role in driving market demand and is not conducive to helping the role of live streaming e-commerce industry drive economic recovery during the epidemic.Moreover, to speed up economic transformation and upgrade and better adapt to the new business formats of the Internet economy, all walks of life join the new economic model of live streaming ecommerce, which will inevitably make their systems more tremendous and complicated.Therefore, in the formulation and implementation of government policies, the diversity of participants in live streaming e-commerce must be considered, and participants should communicate with relevant policy-making departments, associations, enterprises, and platforms in other industries while formulating policy plans.In addition, when focusing on environment-based policy tools and improving industry norms, the government should pay attention to the pulling force of supply-based and demand-based policies on the live streaming e-commerce industry, intensify the professional training of talent in the live streaming e-commerce industry, optimize the incentive system, ensure the intensity of capital investment, refine investment areas, strengthen the support of various production factors, and maintain enthusiasm for the live streaming e-commerce industry.
2. From the perspective of policy effectiveness evaluation, due to the frequent chaos in the live streaming e-commerce industry, government departments are paying more attention to the protection of consumer interests, resulting in industry normative and regulatory policies constituting the majority of policies.Therefore, the current effectiveness evaluation of relevant policy performance in the live streaming e-commerce industry is not excellent.

Table 1 . Policy text statistics. No Policy name Issuing time Implementing time
Notice of NRTA and MCT on Printing and Distributing the Code of Conduct for Online Live Streaming Host 2022.06.22 2022.06.22 3 Opinions of WENMING, MCT, NRTA, and CAC on Regulating Online Live Rewards and Strengthening the Protection of Minors

Table 2 . Abbreviation of department name.
Congress of the People's Republic of China NPC The Ministry of Public Security of the People's Republic of China MPS Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of the People's Republic of China MOA National Health Commission of the People's Republic of China NHC Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China MOFCOM The State Council of the People's Republic of China GOV Anti monopoly Committee of the State Council AMCSC State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council SASAC Cyberspace Administration of China CAC National Development and Reform Commission NDRC State Administration for Industry and Commerce of the People's Republic of China SAIC State Administration for Market Regulation SAMR National Radio and Television Administration NRTA The State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television of the People's Republic of China SAPPRFT State Taxation Administration CHINATAX National Medical Products Administration NMPA General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of the People's Republic of China AQSIQ China Food and Drug Administration CFDA Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People's Republic of China MIIT Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the People's Republic of China MCT The Supreme people's Court of the People's Republic of China COURT National Forestry and Grassland Administration FORESTRY General Administration of Customs of the People's Republic of China CUSTOMS China National Intellectual Property Administration CNIPA Ministry of Finance of the People's Republic of China MOF State Post Bureau of the People's Republic of China SPB https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0301451.t002

Table 4 . Classification and explanation of policy tools.
Serve the overall situation of the country and help poverty reduction.All online audio-visual program service agencies should actively serve the overall strategy of national economic and social development, especially in response to the major deployment of national poverty reduction, through live e-commerce, short-sighted. ..Notice of NRTA on Strengthening the Management of Online Audiovisual E-commerce Live Programs and Advertising Programs During the "Double 11" Period Foreign exchange22 Conduct scientific research cooperation, information sharing, technical exchanges, etc. with overseas governments and institutionsThe state promotes the establishment of exchanges and cooperation with cross-border e-commerce between different countries and regions, participates in the formulation of international rules for e-commerce, and promotes international mutual recognition of e-signatures and e-identities.

Table 4 .
(Continued)Target planning31The goals and strategies for the development of the live streaming e-commerce industry formulated by the government, including political position, ideological understanding and work task arrangement, etc.The overall requirements for rectifying false and illegal advertisements are: adhere to the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, and thoroughly study and implement the 19th CPC National Congress. . .
promote industry standardization, and ensure the orderly development of the live streaming e-commerce industry Standardize the application of key functions.Lists and "gifts" are important functional applications that attract young people to "watch" and interact.Platforms should cancel all reward lists within one month of the release of this opinion, and prohibit the use of reward quotas as the sole basis. . .

Table 9 . Representative policies related to the development of the live streaming e-commerce industry.
P5 CAC, CHINATAX, SAMR, Notice of "On Further Regulating the Profitable Behavior of Webcasting and Promoting the Healthy Development of the Industry" 2022.03.25 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0301451.t009